A Suggestion From a DHS Employee

In response to last week's story on the results of a DHS employee survey, one commenter has this to say:

There is currently no means for employees to evaluate their managers in DHS. A simple rating system would be a great avenue for employees to send a message, either pro or con, to upper management regarding whether their first line supervisors are performing well, or making a mess of things. Employees feel powerless to make a change in the selection of poor managers. The agencies' employees will continue to feel this way until they have a voice that can effect change.

So-called 360-degree feedback is already an established business practice. But just as managers need help managing and giving good feedback to their employees, employees would need guidance on how to give good feedback to their managers. And of course just as managers can practice favoritism, employees could skew ratings based on factors other than whether a manager is doing a good job. There's no way for things to be perfect. But more feedback generally is better than less.